Recently, there has been a large debate in the world of transportation over the rival services of traditional taxi companies and the new-and-improved version, Uber. While both have their benefits, for the majority of citizens living in this modern age, Uber is clearly the better choice. Below I will outline a few major assets to choosing Uber as your ride, rather than calling a traditional taxi.
First and foremost, Uber is designed to provide the basic taxi service but with improved efficiency. Want a town car to pick you up? This wish is one click away on the Uber app, while with taxi services one would have to take whatever they could manually hail down or order over phone. Additionally, taxi drivers have been known to exploit helpless drivers by taking routes longer than necessary to maximize profit. Uber implements a rating system to account for this issue, meaning that passengers could give their driver a bad rating if they felt the ride was unnecessarily long or if their experience was unsatisfactory in any other way.
This rating system isn’t the only benefit to choosing Uber as a means of transportation; it also provides users with base fares significantly cheaper than that of a taxi service. This cheaper fare for a trip is especially attractive to teenagers and young adults, some of which depend on Uber as the main source of transportation to and from daily activities. Relying on a taxi service for your daily commute can add up quickly, so switching to Uber is likely an incentive for many to save a few dollars per trip.
With that being said, it cannot be forgotten that there are still some issues with this technological taxi spin-off. The two main concerns currently being raised about Uber, according to Jonathan Kay’s article “Uber v. Taxi” found in The Walrus, include its lack of handicap-accessible vehicles, and its online-only feature. These two factors largely overlook the disabled and elderly portions of populations, which still have no choice but to rely on traditional taxi services for transport.
While these two issues are currently roadblocks to the complete takeover of the Uber empire, the benefits of this service still largely outweigh the problems this company has yet to remedy.